Our final Music at Midday for this church season will be Wednesday June 16 at 12:30 as usual.
We will be listening to some wonderful music by Tobique, (New Brunswick) First Nation composer, Jeremy Dutcher, in observance of National Aboriginal Month. He performs Sakomawit a song in his native language Wolastoqi at the 2019 Polaris awards. Violinist Blake Pouliot, another star of the Canadian classical music scene is one of the talented young musicians who collaborate on stage with him.
https://youtu.be/htuSO4RlYbw
Here also is an edited version of his acceptance speech at that Polaris Award night:
“Psi-te npomawsuwinuwok, kiluwaw yut (All my people, this is for you!). OK Canada, I've got 60 seconds so let's get down to this......I want all the other nominees in this category to stand up please. Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Elisapie, Leonard Sumner. All of your work changes this place. And it deserves to be considered outside of this category. Because our music is not niche. Our music is saying something. I love you all, thank you so much for the art that you make. And I'll thank you all in person later. So Justin. Mr. Trudeau. A nation-to-nation relationship does not look like pipelines. A nation-to-nation relationship does not look like sending militarized police force into unceded territory. And a nation-to-nation relationship does not look like, in 2019, our communities still under boiled-water advisory. So. This means so much to me. I hope to continue to share and use this platform to tell truth........ Reconciliation. It's a lofty goal. It's a dream. It doesn't happen in a year. It takes time. It takes stories. It takes shared experience. It takes music. I have hope. I have to. That we can come to right relations with each other. I just want to say this: Nihkaniyayon ktpitahatomonen, ciw weckuwapasihtit — Nit leyic (When you lead us, think of all of us, for the ones yet born — may that be the truth). Thank you.”
From the Hamburg Musikfest: A Celebration of Black Music II, we will hear Justin Austin, baritone, and Howard Watkins, pianist, perform a powerful version of the spiritual Oh Freedom by Shawn Okbepholo
https://youtu.be/Brzg_WOR3_Y
Rachel Mercer, principal cellist at NAC plays Kirsten Flores work for solo cello, In the Mountains